Beer-related travel, at home and abroad, exploring and indulging my passion for beer.

Saturday, 13 May 2017

No longer a Gose virgin

Until the other day I’d never tried a Gose, but now,
having enjoyed a glass, I must say I rather like it and would certainly give the
beer another go. With its unusual inclusion of coriander and salt in the grist,
I found the beer surprisinglyrefreshing
and definitely much more palatable and agreeable than a German Weisse Bier.

For the initiated, Gose is a top-fermented beer that originated in
the town of Goslar,
in Lower Saxony, Germany, from where its name is also derived. It is brewed
with a grist malted wheat constitutes at least 50% of the grain. Gose was first
brewed in the early 16th century.

Due to various trading links, the beer was slowly introduced to other parts
of Germany, and
it became particularly popular in the city of Leipzig;
so much so that local breweries copied the style. By the end of the 1800s, it
was considered to be local to Leipzig
and there were numerousGosenschänken(Gose taverns) in the city.

Gose belongs to the same family of sour wheat beers which
were once brewed across Northern Germany and the Low
Countries. Other beers of this family are Belgian Witbier, Berliner
Weisse, Broyhan, and Polish Grodziskie

Dominant flavours in Gose include a lemon sourness, a herbal
characteristic, and a strong saltiness (the result of either local water
sources or added salt). Gose beers typically do not have a prominent hop
bitterness, or aroma, and typically have a moderate alcohol content of 4.0 to
5.0% ABV.

My example was purchased through Beers of Europe, and was
labelled Original Leipziger Gose. It is a naturally conditioned beer, but
because my bottle had been standing for so long in an upright position in the
fridge, it poured virtually clear, with just a slight haze. When I looked,
there was quite a crust of yeast remaining in the bottom of the bottle.

The beer maintained a reasonable head until over half way
down the glass. There was nothing much in the way of aroma, but on the palate
there was a refreshing sharpness, which blended well with the coriander. I
could also taste the salt lurking, quite prominently, in the background.

My bottle was brewed at the Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei; a brewpub
and beer hall housed at the Bayerischer Bahnhof in Leipzig.
For the rail buffs amongst us, the Leipzig
Bavarian station is Germany's
oldest preserved railway station, which first opened in 1842 for the
Leipzig–Hof Railway, by the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company

The station was closed in 2001 for the construction of the Leipzig City Tunnel. It re-opened in December 2013 after the completion
of the tunnel. Since then it is integrated into S-Bahnsystem. The new station is built directly
underneath the site of the former station which has been converted to a
variety of uses, including a brew-pub; as mentioned above.

Because of the use of coriander and salt, Gose does not comply with the all-conquering
Reinheitsgebot,
but is allowed an exemption on the grounds of being a regional specialty. It
acquires its characteristic sourness through inoculation with lactobacillus
bacteria after the boil. The beer was originally spontaneously fermented, but sometime in
the 1880s, brewers managed to achieve the same effect by using a combination of
top-fermenting yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

Gose was delivered, still actively fermenting, in barrels to the local pubs.
Casks were stored in the cellar with the shive hole left open, so that the
still-active yeast could escape. When fermentation had slowed to a point where
no yeast was emerging, the Gose was ready to bottle and it was filled into
traditional long-necked bottles. These were not closed with a cap or cork, but
with a plug of yeast which naturally rose up the neck as the secondary
fermentation continued.

Gose’s popularity eventually waned, and by the outbreak of World War II,
only one Leipzig brewery continued
to produce the style. After the war, the brewery was nationalised by the East
German government, and eventually closed. Gose clung on stubbornly, but were it
not for the work of pub owner Lothar Goldhahn, who wanted to revive the style,
in order to sell it at the "Ohne Bedenken", a former Gosenschenke,
which he was restoring, it is likely the beer would have disappeared
altogether.

Goldhahn questioned local drinkers in order to ascertain its precise
characteristics, and then searched for a brewery to produce it, butno local brewery was willing to make such strange
beer. Eventually the Schultheiss Berliner-Weisse-Brauerei in East
Berlin agreed, and following successful test brews production
started in 1986.

Gose has again found popularity, and the style is now brewed outside Germany,
in the United States,
Canada and Britain.
As I discovered, it is an extremely pleasant and thirst quenching beer, making
it the ideal drink for a hot summer’s day, (not many of those around at the
moment!).

When Gose wasn't being brewed in East Germany in the 80's, the Leipzig pubs substituted for it with bottles of Belriner Weisse, both of them as you say being members of a bigger family of north German/Belgian sour wheat beers. I've also seen a claim that Gose and gueze are linked, although, apart from the similarity of the words, that might be hard to back up historically.

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About Me

Sixty years old (just) and married with one twenty-something son, who shows no sign of wanting to
leave home. My interests are many and varied, and whilst beer (and the
enjoyment of it) obviously features high on the list I also enjoy travelling
(particularly when it involves searching out new beers to try), cycling and
walks in the countryside. I dabble a bit in gardening, which at the moment
primarily involves re-landscaping my garden. My other main interests though are
music, especially 70's rock music, and history. I have been a member of CAMRA
since the mid 1970's and have edited a number of local branch magazines. I have
also had published two, now sadly out of date, guides to Kent
pubs. For six years my wife and I also ran our own successful real-ale
off-licence, which as well as selling cask ale to take away by the pint,
offered one of the best selections of bottled beers in the south east. Prior to
taking on the shop, I was an accomplished home-brewer producing a wide range of
full-mash beers; something I intend to get back into in the not too distant
future.